[The following sermon is taken from volume VII:7-19
of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand Rapids,
MI). It was originally published in 1909 in English by The Luther Press
(Minneapolis, MN), as Luther's Epistle Sermons, vol. 2. This e-text
was scanned and edited by Richard Bucher, it is in the public domain and
it may be copied and distributed without restriction.]

THE
FRUITS OF FAITH.

1. In the preceding sermons I have treated sufficiently of faith and
love; and of crosses and afflictions, the promoters of hope. Faith, love
and affliction bound the Christian's life. It is unnecessary that I should
further discourse on these topics. As they--or anything pertaining to the
life of the Christian--present themselves, reference may be had to those
former postils. It is my purpose now briefly to make plain that the sum
of all divine doctrine is simply Jesus Christ, as we have often heard.

2. This epistle lesson treats not of faith, but of the fruits of faith--love,
unity, patience, self-denial, etc. Among these fruits, the apostle considers
first the discipline of the body--the mortification of evil lusts. He handles
the subject here in a manner wholly unlike his method in other epistles.
In Galatians he speaks of crucifying the flesh with its lusts; in Hebrews
and Colossians, of putting off the old man and mortifying the members on
earth. Here he mentions presenting the body as a sacrifice; he dignifies
it by the loftiest and most sacred terms. Why does he so?

First, by making the terms glorious, he would the more emphatically
urge us to yield this fruit of faith. The whole world regards the priest's
office--his service and his dignity--as representing the acme of nobility
and exaltation; and so it truly does. Now, if one would be a priest and
exalted before God, let him set about this work of offering up his body
to God; in other words, let him be humble, let him be nothing in the eyes
of the world.

3. I will let every man decide for himself the difference between the
outward priesthood of dazzling character and the internal, spiritual priesthood.
The first is confined to a very few individuals; the second, Christians
commonly share. One was ordained of men, independently of the Word of God;
the other was established through the Word, irrespective of human devices.
In that, the skin is besmeared with material oil; in this, the heart is
internally anointed with the Holy Spirit. That applauds and extols its
works; this proclaims and magnifies the grace of God, and his glory. That
does not offer up the body with its lusts, but rather fosters the evil
desires of the flesh; this sacrifices the body and mortifies its lusts.
The former permits the offering up to itself of gold and property, of honor,
of idleness and pleasure, and of all manner of lust on earth; the latter
foregoes these things and accepts only the reverse of homage. That again
sacrifices Christ in its awful perversions; this, satisfied with the atonement
once made by Christ, offers up itself with him and in him, by making similar
sacrifices. In fact, the two priesthoods accord about as well as Christ
and Barabbas, as light and darkness, as God and the world. As little as
smearing and shaving were factors in Christ's priesthood, so little will
they thus procure for anyone the Christian priesthood. Yet Christ, with
all his Christians, is priest. "Thou art a priest for ever after the order
of Melchizedek." Ps 110, 4. The Christian priesthood will not admit of
appointment. The priest is not made. He must be born a priest; must inherit
his office. I refer to the new birth--the birth of water and the Spirit.
Thus all Christians become priests, children of God and co-heirs with Christ
the Most High Priest.

4. Men universally consider the title of priest glorious and honorable;
it is acceptable to everyone. But the duties and the sacrifice of the office
are rarely accepted. Men seem to be averse to these latter. The Christian
priesthood costs life, property, honor, friends and all worldly things.
It cost Christ the same on the holy cross. No man readily chooses death
instead of life, and accepts pain instead of pleasure, loss instead of
gain, shame rather than honor, enemies rather than friends, according to
the example Christ set for us on the cross. And further, all this is to
be endured, not for profit to one's self, but for the benefit of his neighbor
and for the honor and glory of God. For so Christ offered up his body.
This priesthood is a glorious one.

5. As I have frequently stated, the suffering and work of Christ is
to be viewed in two lights: First, as grace bestowed on us, as a blessing
conferred, requiring the exercise of faith on our part and our acceptance
of the salvation offered. Second, we are to regard it an example for us
to follow; we are to offer up ourselves for our neighbors' benefit and
for the honor of God. This offering is the exercise of our love--distributing
our works for the benefit of our neighbors. He who so does is a Christian.
He becomes one with Christ, and the offering of his body is identical with
the offering of Christ's body. This is what Peter calls offering sacrifices
acceptable to God by Christ. He describes priesthood and offering in these
words: "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be
a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ." I Pet 2, 5.

6. Peter says "spiritual sacrifices," but Paul says our bodies are to
be offered up. While it is true that the body is not spirit, the offering
of it is called a spiritual sacrifice because it is freely sacrificed through
the Spirit, the Christian being uninfluenced by the constraints of the
Law or the fear of hell. Such motives, however, sway the ecclesiasts, who
have heaped tortures upon themselves by undergoing fasts, uncomfortable
clothing, vigils, hard beds and other vain and difficult performances,
and yet failed to attain to this spiritual sacrifice. Rather, they have
wandered the farther from it because of their neglect to mortify their
old Adam-like nature. They have but increased in presumption and wickedness,
thinking by their works and merits to raise themselves in God's estimation.
Their penances were not intended for the mortification of their bodies,
but as works meriting for them superior seats in heaven. Properly, then,
their efforts may be regarded a carnal sacrifice of their bodies, unacceptable
to God and most acceptable to the devil.

7. But spiritual sacrifices, Peter tells us, are acceptable to God;
and Paul teaches the same (Rom 8 13): "If by the Spirit ye put to death
the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Paul speaks of mortifying through
the Spirit; Peter, of a spiritual sacrifice. The offering must first be
slain. Paul's thought is: "If ye mortify the deeds of the body in your
individual, chosen ways, unprompted by the Spirit or your own heart, simply
through fear of punishment, that mortification--that sacrifice--will be
carnal; and ye shall not live, but die a death the more awful." The Spirit
must mortify your deeds--spiritually it must be done; that is, with real
enjoyment, unmoved by fear of hell, voluntarily, without expectation of
meriting honor or reward, either temporal or eternal. This, mark you, is
a spiritual sacrifice. However outward, gross, physical and visible a deed
may be, it is altogether spiritual when wrought by the Spirit. Even eating
and drinking are spiritual works if done through the Spirit. On the other
hand, whatsoever is wrought through the flesh is carnal, no matter to what
ex- tent it may be a secret desire of the soul. Paul (Gal 5, 20) terms
idolatry and heresies works of the flesh, notwithstanding they are invisible
impulses of the soul.

8. In addition to this spiritual sacrifice--the mortifying of the deeds
of the body--Peter mentions another, later on in the same chapter: "But
ye are . . . . a royal priesthood . . . . that ye may show forth the excellencies
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Here Peter
touches upon the preaching office, the real sacrificial office, concerning
which it is said (Ps 50, 23), "Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving
glorifieth me." Preaching extols the grace of God. It is the offering of
praise and thanks. Paul boasts (Rom 15, 16) that he sanctifies and offers
the Gospel. But it is not our purpose to consider here this sacrifice of
praise; though praise in the congregation may be included in the spiritual
sacrifice, as we shall see. For he who offers his body to God also offers
his tongue and his lips as instruments to confess, preach and extol the
grace of God. On this topic, however, we shall speak elsewhere. Let us
now consider the words of the text.

OUR SPIRITUAL SERVICE.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren."

9. Paul does not say, "I command you." He is preaching to those already
godly Christians through faith in the new man; to hearers who are not to
be constrained by commandments, but to be admonished. For the object is
to secure voluntary renunciation of their old, sinful, Adam- like nature.
He who will not cheerfully respond to friendly admonition is no Christian.
And he who attempts by the restraints of law to compel the unwilling to
renunciation, is no Christian preacher or ruler; he is but a worldly jailer.

"By the mercies of God."

10. A teacher of the Law enforces his restraints through threats and
punishments. A preacher of grace persuades and incites by calling attention
to the goodness and mercy of God. The latter does not desire works prompted
by an unwilling spirit, or service that is not the expression of a cheerful
heart. He desires that a joyous, willing spirit shall incite to the service
Of God. He who cannot, by the gracious and lovely message of God's mercy
so lavishly bestowed upon us in Christ, be persuaded in a spirit of love
and delight to contribute to the honor of God and the benefit of his neighbor,
is worthless to Christianity, and all effort is lost on him. How can one
whom the fire of heavenly love and grace cannot melt, be rendered cheerfully
obedient by laws and threats? Not human mercy is offered us, but divine
mercy, and Paul would have us perceive it and be moved thereby.

"To present your bodies."

11. Many and various were the sacrifices of the Old Testament. But all
were typical of this one sacrifice of the body, offered by Christ and his
Christians. And there is not, nor can be, any other sacrifice in the New
Testament. What more would one, or could one, offer than himself, all he
is and all he has? When the body is yielded a sacrifice, all belonging
to the body is yielded also. Therefore, the Old Testament sacrifices, with
the priests and all the splendor, have terminated. How does the offering
of a penny compare with that of the body? Indeed, such fragmentary patchwork
scarcely deserves recognition as a sacrifice when the bodies of Christ
and of his followers are offered.

Consequently, Isaiah may truly say that in the New Testament such beggarly
works are loathsome compared to real and great sacrifices: "He that killeth
an ox is as he that slayeth a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as he that
breaketh a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as he that offereth
swine's blood; he that burneth frankincense, as he that blesseth an idol."
Is 66, 3. Similarly, also: "What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the
fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs,
or of he-goats." Is 1, 11. Thus, in plain words, Isaiah rejects all other
sacrifices in view of this true one.

12. Our blind leaders, therefore, have most wretchedly deceived the
world by their mass- offerings, for they have forgotten this one real sacrifice.
The mass may be celebrated and at the same time the soul be not benefited,
but rather injured. But the body cannot be offered without benefiting the
soul. Under the New Testament dispensation, then, the mass cannot be a
sacrifice, even were it ever one. For all the works, all the sacrifices
of the New Testament, must be true and soul-benefiting. Otherwise they
are not New Testament sacrifices. It is said (Ps 25, 10), "All the paths
of Jehovah are lovingkindness and truth."

"A living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God."

13. Paul here makes use of the three words "living," "holy" and "acceptable,"
doubtless to teach that the sacrifices of the Old Testament are repealed
and the entire priesthood abolished. The Old Testament sacrifices consisted
of bullocks, sheep and goats. To these life was not spared. For the sacrifice
they were slain, burned, consumed by the priests. But the New Testament
sacrifice is a wonderful offering. Though slain, it still lives. Indeed,
in proportion as it is slain and sacrificed, does it live in vigor. "If
by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Rom
8, 13. "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Col 3, 3.
"And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions
and the lusts thereof." Gal 5, 24.

14. The word "living," then, is to be spiritually understood--as having
reference to the life before God and not to the temporal life. He who keeps
his body under and mortifies its lusts does not live to the world; he does
not lead the life of the world. The world lives in its lusts, and according
to the flesh; it is powerless to live otherwise. True, the Christian is
bodily in the world, yet he does not live after the flesh. As Paul says
(2 Cor 10, 3), "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to
the flesh"; and again (Rom 8, 1), "Who walk not after the flesh." Such
a life is, before God, eternal, and a true, living sacrifice. Such mortification
of the body and of its lusts, whether effected by voluntary discipline
or by persecution, is simply an exercise in and for the life eternal.

15. None of the Old Testament sacrifices were holy except in an external
and temporal sense--until they were consumed. For the life of the animal
was but temporal and external previous to the sacrifice. But the "living
sacrifice" Paul mentions is righteous before God, and also externally holy.
"Holy" implies simply, being designed for the service and the honor of
God, and employed of God. Hence we must here understand the word "holy"
as conveying the thought that we let God alone work in us and we be simply
his holy instruments. As said in First Corinthians 6, 19-20, "Your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost . . . and ye are not your own . . . therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." Again (Gal
6, 17), "I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus." Now, he who performs
a work merely for his own pleasure and to his own honor, profanes his sacrifice.
So also do they who by their works seek to merit reward from God, whether
temporal or eternal. The point of error is, they are not yet a slain sacrifice.
The sacrifice cannot be holy unless it first lives; that is, unless it
is slain before God, and slain in its own consciousness, and thus does
not seek its own honor and glory.

16. The Old Testament sacrifices were not in themselves acceptable to
God. Nor did they render man acceptable. But in the estimation of the world--before
men--they were pleasing, even regarded highly worthy. Men thought thereby
to render themselves well-pleasing in God's sight. But the spiritual sacrifice
is, in man's estimation, the most repugnant and unacceptable of all things.
It condemns, mortifies and opposes whatever, in man's judgment, is good
and well-pleasing. For, as before stated, nature cannot do otherwise than
to live according to the flesh, particularly to follow its own works and
inventions. It cannot admit that all its efforts and designs are vain and
worthy of mortification and of death. The spiritual sacrifice is acceptable
to God, Paul teaches, however unacceptable it may be to the world. They
who render this living, holy sacrifice are happy and assured of their acceptance
with God; they know God requires the death of the lusts and inventions
of the flesh, and he alone desires to live and work in us. 17. Consequently,
Paul's use of the word "body" includes more than outward, sensual vices
and crimes, as gluttony, fornication, murder; it includes everything not
of the new spiritual birth but belonging to the old Adam nature, even its
best and noblest faculties, outer and inner; the deep depravity of self-will,
for instance, and arrogance, human wisdom and reason, reliance on our own
good works, on our own spiritual life and on the gifts wherewith God has
endowed our nature.

To illustrate: Take the most spiritual and the wisest individuals on
earth, and while it is true that a fraction of them are outwardly and physically
chaste, their hearts, it will be found, are filled with haughtiness, presumption
and self-will, while they delight in their own wisdom and peculiar conduct.
No saint is wholly free from the deep depravity of the inner nature. Hence
he must constantly offer himself up, mortifying his old deceitful self.
Paul calls it sacrificing the body, because the individual, on becoming
a Christian, lives more than half spiritually, and the evil propensities
remaining to be mortified Paul attributes to the body as to the inferior,
the less important, part of man; the part not as yet wholly under the Spirit's
influence.

"Which is your spiritual (reasonable) service."

18. A clear distinction is here made between the services rendered God
by Christians and those which the Jews rendered. The thought is: The Jews'
service to God consisted in sacrifices of irrational beasts, but the service
of Christians, in spiritual sacrifices--the sacrifice of their bodies,
their very selves. The Jews offered gold and silver; they built an inanimate
temple of wood and stone. Christians are a different people. Their sacrifices
are not silver and gold. Their temple is not wood and stone; it is themselves.
"Ye are a temple of God." I Cor 3, 16. Thus you observe the unfair treatment
accorded Christians in ignoring their peculiar services and inducing the
world to build churches, to erect altars and monasteries, and to manufacture
bells, chalices and images by way of Christian service--works that would
have been too burdensome for even the Jews. 19. In brief, this our reasonable
service is rightly called a spiritual service of the heart, performed in
the faith and the knowledge of God. Here Paul rejects all service not performed
in faith as entirely unreasonable, even if rendered by the body and in
outward act, and having the appearance of great holiness and spiritual
life. Such have been the works, offerings, monkery and stringent life of
the Papists, performed without the knowledge of God--having no command
of God--and without spirit and heart. They have thought that so long as
the works were performed they must be pleasing to God, independent of their
faith. Such was also the service of the Jews in their works and offerings,
and of all who knew not Christ and were without faith. Hence they were
no better than the service and works of idolatrous and ignorant heathen.

"And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable
and perfect will of God."

20. As before said, the world cannot endure the sight or hearing of
this living sacrifice; therefore it opposes it on every side. With its
provocations and threats, its enticements and persecutions, it has every
advantage, aided by the fact that our minds and spirits are not occupied
with that spiritual sacrifice, but we give place to the dispositions and
inclinations of the world. We must be careful, then, to follow neither
the customs of the world nor our own reason or plausible theories. We must
constantly subdue our dispositions and control our wills, not obeying the
dictates of reason and desire. Always we are to conduct ourselves in a
manner unlike the way of the world. So shall we be daily changed--renewed
in our minds. That is, we come each day to place greater value on the things
condemned by human reason--by the world. Daily we prefer to be poor, sick
and despised, to be fools and sinners, until ultimately we regard death
as better than life, foolishness as more precious than wisdom, shame nobler
than honor, labor more blessed than wealth, and sin more glorious than
human righteousness. Such a mind the world does not possess. The mind of
the world is altogether unlike the Christian's. It not only continues unchanged
and unrenewed in its old disposition, but is obdurate and very old.

21. God's will is ever good and perfect, ever gracious; but it is not
at all times so regarded of men. Indeed, human reason imagines it to be
the evil, unfriendly, abominable will of the devil, because what reason
esteems highest, best and holiest, God's will regards as nothing and worthy
of death. Therefore, Christian experience must come to the rescue and decide.
It must feel and prove, must test and ascertain, whether one is prompted
by a sincere and gracious will. He who perseveres and learns in this way
will go forward in his experience, finding God's will so gracious and pleasing
he would not exchange it for all the world's wealth. He will discover that
acceptance of God's will affords him more happiness, even in poverty, disgrace
and adversity, than is the lot of any worldling in the midst of earthly
honors and pleasures. He will finally arrive at a degree of perfection
making him inclined to exchange life for death, and, with Paul, to desire
to depart that sin may no more live in him, and that the will of God may
be done perfectly in himself in every relation. In this respect he is wholly
unlike the world; he conducts himself very differently from it. For the
world never has enough of this life, while the experienced Christian is
ready to be removed. What the world seeks, he avoids; what it avoids, he
seeks.

22. Paul, you will observe, does not consider the Christian absolutely
free from sin, since he beseeches us to be "transformed by the renewing
of the mind." Where transformation and renewal are necessary, something
of the old and sinful nature must yet remain. This sin is not imputed to
Christians, because they daily endeavor to effect transformation and renovation.
Sin exists in them against their will. Flesh and spirit are contrary to
each other (Gal 5, 17), therefore we do not what we would. Rom 7, 15.

Paul makes particular mention of "the mind" here, by contrast making
plainer what is intended by the "body" which he beseeches them to sacrifice.
The scriptural sense of the word "mind" has already been sufficiently defined
as "belief," which is the source of either vice or virtue. For what I value,
I believe to be right. I observe what I value, as do others. But when belief
is wrong, conscience and faith have not control. Where unity of mind among
men is lacking, love and peace cannot be present; and where love and faith
are not present, only the world and the devil reign. Hence transformation
by renewal of the mind is of vital importance. Now follows:

SOBER THOUGHTS OF OURSELVES.

"For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think;
but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every
man a measure of faith."

23. Paul, in all his epistles, is careful to give this instruction to
Christians. His purpose is to preserve simplicity of faith among them everywhere;
to prevent sects and schisms in Christian life, which have their origin
in differing minds, in diversity of belief. To make admonition the more
forcible, he refers to his apostolic office; to the fact that he was, by
the grace of God, chosen and sent to teach the things he advocates. His
words here mean: "Ye possess many graces, but let everyone take heed to
confine his belief and opinions to the limits of faith. Let him not esteem
himself above another, nor attach to the gifts conferred upon himself greater
value than he accords those conferred upon another. Otherwise he will be
inclined to despise the lesser gifts and emphasize the more exalted ones,
and to influence others to the same practice." Where there is not such
humility, recourse is had to works and to the honoring of gifts, while
faith is neglected. Thus belief prompts to do as the world does, to value
what is exalted and to despise what is humble.

24. This principle cannot be better illustrated than by the prevailing
examples of our time. For instance, monks and priests have established
spiritual orders which they regard highly meritorious. In this respect
they do not think soberly, but extravagantly. They imagine ordinary Christians
to be insignificant in comparison with them. But their orders represent
neither faith nor love, and are not commanded by God. They are peculiar,
something devised by the monks and priests themselves. Hence there is division.
Because of the different beliefs, numerous sects exist, each striving for
first place. Consequently, all the orders become unprofitable in God's
sight. The love and faith and harmony which unite Christians are dissipated.

25. Paul teaches that, however varied the gifts and the outward works,
none should, because of these, esteem himself good, nor regard himself
better than others. Rather, every man should estimate his own goodness
by his faith. Faith is something all Christians have, though not in equal
measure, some possessing more and others less. However, in faith all have
the same possession--Christ. The murderer upon the cross, through faith,
had Christ in himself as truly as had Peter, Paul, Abraham, the mother
of the Lord, and all saints; though his faith may not have been so strong.
Therefore, though gifts be unequal, the precious faith is the same. Now,
if we are to glory in the treasures of faith only, not in the gifts, every
man should esteem another's gifts as highly as his own, and with his own
gifts serve that other who in faith possesses equal treasure with him.
Then will continue loving harmony and simple faith, and none will fall
back upon his own works or merits. Of this "mind," or belief, you may read
further in the preceding postils, especially in the epistle selection for
the third Sunday in Advent. Further comment on this text will be left for
the next epistle lesson, the two being closely connected.